Press freedom in Hong Kong falls to record low: journalist survey

HONG KONG: In an annual survey released on Tuesday (August 20), Hong Kong journalists rated press freedom in the city lower than ever before, citing fears of sweeping national security laws.

The Press Freedom Index has been published every year since 2013 by the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) and the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute (HKPORI) and rates the city's media landscape on a scale of zero to 100, with 100 being the highest score.

It is based on a survey of over 250 working journalists and around 1,000 private individuals.

The rating among journalists fell to a record low of 25 this year, down 0.7 points from last year and 17 points since the survey began.

More than 90 percent of journalists surveyed said press freedom in the city had been “significantly” affected by a new security law passed in March that criminalizes crimes such as espionage and foreign interference.

Colloquially known as Article 23, this is the second law of its kind to be passed for the financial center. Beijing had previously passed such a law in 2020 after massive and sometimes violent protests broke out in Hong Kong.

In addition, 94 percent of journalists said that the prosecution of media magnate Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct Chinese tabloid Apple Daily, under the first law was “extremely damaging” to press freedom.

Further concerns were raised over the disappearance of South China Morning Post reporter Minnie Chan in Beijing.

The HKJA had previously released a statement expressing “grave concern” about Chan, an award-winning journalist who has been unreachable since attending a security forum in Beijing last year.

The public’s overall rating was 42.2 – largely stable after the last major decline from 45 in 2018 to 41.9 in 2019.

“This discrepancy may be explained by the relatively less heated debate surrounding Article 23 compared to the 2020 National Security Law,” the HKJA said in a statement.

However, journalists are “more aware that their reporting may potentially violate the new criminal offences under Article 23.”

The index was released a few weeks after the newly elected chair of the HKJA, Selina Cheng, was fired by the Wall Street Journal upon taking up her new role.

The Journal's parent company, Dow Jones, declined to comment on Cheng's case, but said at the time that it “remains a vigorous and vocal defender of press freedom.”